Year of Prayer: Holy Week - Holy Saturday & the Easter Vigil
As we continue our Year of Prayer at St. Josaphat, the month of April is dedicated to praying our way through Holy Week. These are the most sacred days of the entire liturgical year. The end of Holy Week is the Easter Triduum and is composed of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Our focus this week is Holy Saturday. During the morning of April 20, we will pray Lauds, commonly known as
Morning Prayer, at 9 am
. This is followed by the
blessing of Easter baskets at Noon
.
The blessing of Easter baskets is an Eastern European tradition, one that goes back to at least the 12th Century. It is a particularly popular tradition in Poland. While tastes vary by region and family, the basket usually contains smoked meats, sausage, butter, cheese, bread, salt and decorated hard-boiled eggs. The eggs have a place of honor on the Easter table, and they are broken and shared by those present. A lamb molded of butter or pastry, representing Christ as the "Lamb of God," also shares the Easter table. Since St. Josaphat Parish was founded by Kashube immigrants, we like to carry on the tradition. We invite you to come and bring your own Easter baskets for a blessing on Holy Saturday at Noon.
During the evening we will celebrate the
Easter Vigil at 7:30 pm
. This is the biggest celebration of our entire liturgical year. It's the night we celebrate Jesus' resurrection and triumph over sin and death, and it's at the Easter Vigil that we welcome our Catechumens and Elect into the Catholic Faith. This year we are blessed to have
two candidates in our Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
.
Kellie Swift
will be entering into the Roman Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil and will be receiving the sacraments of Baptism, Holy Eucharist and Confirmation.
Camille Galles
will be receiving the Sacrament of Eucharist and Confirmation.
The Easter Vigil begins with the entire church in darkness. We then bless the fire outside of the church and light the Paschal Candle, which represents Christ as the light of the world. We process into the main body of the church with the Paschal Candle, with the deacon proclaiming "Christ our Light" as parishioners begin lighting their candles from the Paschal Candle until the entire church is bathed in candle light. The "Exultet", which is Latin for "rejoice" is proclaimed by the deacon. The Exultet prepares us to celebrate the mysteries of this night.
We then proceed through the Liturgy of the Word, in which we listen to several Old and New Testament readings. These passages trace salvation history from the time of Adam and Eve to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Next we welcome our Catechumens and Elect into the Catholic faith through baptism and confirmation. First we bless the baptismal font, using the Paschal Candle. After Kellie is baptized, she and Camille will receive the sacrament of confirmation as I anoint them with the sacred chrism oil, which will have been blessed by Cardinal Cupich at the Chrism Mass earlier in the week. As you can imagine, the celebration of these sacraments during the Easter Vigil is a particularly powerful and joyful moment for the entire Church! The liturgy then reaches its culmination as our newly baptized and confirmed members join us in celebrating the Eucharist for the very first time.
The Easter Vigil is filled with symbolism including darkness, candle light, water, oil, bread, and wine. All of the mysteries of our Catholic faith come alive and are on full display in the celebration of the Easter Vigil. It's easily our most beautiful liturgy of the entire year. I hope you will consider joining us for the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday at 7:30 pm. If you are unable to make it, please be sure to say a prayer for Kellie and Camille, as they prepare to enter into our Catholic faith this Easter.
God Bless,
